APRIL 21, 2011 MARKED the one-year anniversary of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) First Light press conference, where NASA revealed the first images taken by the spacecraft.

In the last year, the Sun has gone from its quietest period in years to the activity marking the beginning of solar cycle 24. SDO has captured every moment with a level of detail never-before possible.

The mission has returned unprecedented images of solar flares, eruptions of prominences, and the early stages of coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

In this short video are some of the most beautiful, interesting, and mesmerising events seen by SDO during its first year.

Adapted from information issued by NASA GSFC.

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Comments (3)

G’day Jonathan! Glad to hear you’re still enjoying the results. I love hearing that from customers!

The biz is a bit quiet at the moment, we’ve had a change of pace and moved further out to the country. Plus, I’m paying for all those good times biking, but things are looking up once again.

Meanwhile I’m hoping for some good dark nights and good enough health to get out there and see (and photograph) some starstuff! I’ve figured out the quirks of my new Pentax K7, and I’ve just picked up a 500mm telephoto lens, so the possibilities are there, alright.

I’m even hoping to kick off a star party(ies) at some stage, but that’s a little way off yet. We have a great venue (almost blacked-out racecourse), so the potential is there, and I want to spread the word. Plus, this is a bit of a weekender tourist destination, so a couple of clear nights could really add to the attraction of vineyards and mountain views during the days. I reckon so, anyway.

I’m enjoying the heck out of the newsletter and site, please keep up the fantastic ‘illumination’ work!

I was sorry to hear Stuart Garry’s StarStuff program was closed, so it’s more important than ever to get the word out – LOOK UP AT NIGHT! 🙂

Obviously no clouds out there to spoil the viewing. Ah, well, we’ll just have to watch from a few million miles farther out…

Solar astronomers would once have given their all for just a single frame of such a video sequence. I’m sure the high-res versions look even better!

This is what should be on the commercial channels as filler material, instead of “Zoot Marketing” or “sneak previews”. Let’s hope they catch the bug one day, instead of leaving all the great astronomy to ABC/SBS all the time.